1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to printer control devices, printing systems, a method for controlling a printer, and recording mediums.
2. Related Art
Printing apparatuses such as an ink jet printer that perform printing of images by ejecting ink from an ejecting head are commonly used. The ink to be ejected is contained in a specialized container called an ink cartridge and supplied to the ejecting head by using the weight of ink itself or by means of a liquid pump.
The ejecting head has a complicated internal configuration in which fine ejecting nozzles for ejecting ink and narrow ink passages for guiding ink to the ejecting nozzles are formed. Such ejecting nozzles or the ink passages may be clogged when ink with a decreased quality is supplied, which may eventually lead to a need to replace the ejecting head. Therefore, when ink runs out, the whole ink cartridge is replaced with a new one, thereby preventing ink with a decreased quality from being supplied. In this manner, a new ink cartridge is loaded when ink runs out. In addition, ink in the ink cartridge remains in an appropriate condition for a long period of time prior to the ink cartridge being loaded. This makes it possible to constantly supply ink in an appropriate condition to the ejecting head.
However, the amount of ink that can be contained in the ink cartridge is limited. Thus, when a large amount of printing is executed, the printing job must be suspended several times during printing to replace the ink cartridges. JP-A-2000-211155 discloses a technique to perform continuous printing by supplying ink from an ink tank which is mounted in a printing apparatus and, when ink is running short during printing, injecting a refill ink from an ink bottle which is separately provided.
Such a printing apparatus can be connected to a computer and operated from the computer. In this case, a user installs a printer driver that is compatible with the printing apparatus into the computer. The installed printer driver generates a printing job of images to be printed and sends the printing job to the printing apparatus. Further, since the printer driver can manage the remaining amount of ink in the ink tank and control the refilling of ink, a user can supply ink to the printing apparatus in accordance with a user interface displayed on the computer.
Such printing apparatuses are shipped to different destinations such as countries or regions. Accordingly, different printer drivers have been supplied since available functions may be different depending on the destination country or region of the printing apparatus and a user has to obtain an appropriate printer driver and install the printer driver into the computer.
The suppliers of such printing apparatuses need to manufacture and supply different printer drivers depending on the destination country or region of the printing apparatus. When the printing apparatuses are supplied to a large number of destinations, printer drivers for the respective destinations must be manufactured and managed, which requires a significant amount of labor and cost.